Shelby

I can't even tell you how crazy I am about this girl.

I was sure when I was pregnant, that I was going to have another boy. I was absolutely certain that I was the perfect type of person to have all boys. But, when I found out I was going to have a little girl, I cried...

I call this little girl, my little angel, because that is exactly what she is to me.

The easiest pregnancy I have had.

I absolutely could not deliver until I worked February 1st *for insurance purposes* She didn't come until February 2

We are moving, we cannot have a cry baby...

This one NEVER cries

She needs brown eyes... I want my baby girl to have brown eyes to take after her momma...This one has my eyes

She sings with me

Our favorite song now is "I want to hold your hand"

Every single time I sing it to her she starts singing with me

She talks he head off when I get home from work. No kidding, we talk back and forth until she just about falls to sleep. She has so much to tell momma.

She can already whip her brothers into shapeI don't know, there is just something special about this little girl. I really think that she is a princess. I love her so much!I feel like we are already best friends!

I love you Shelby!

Easter

I can't believe that Easter has already come and gone.

We had a great day. The weather was perfect and the company was nice too.

The night before, on Easter eve, Ryan and I put the baskets together and got everything ready for our Easter egg hunt the next morning. We filled up eggs with candy and watched a movie together. That might be my favorite part about holidays, the preparation with just me and Ryan the night before. We get to hang out and work together. I love it!

When Ryan was little he said that for Easter his family put out the baskets to be seen when they woke up while my parents always hid the baskets for us to find. Since the kids are still young we decided to leave the baskets out this year.

I can't believe it...3 baskets!

When I got up in the morning to feed Shelby and hide eggs I managed to get the Sunrise- beautiful!
Paxton got up first and tried not to find the eggs while he waited for his little brother to wake up. When Gauge did get up the boys got started fast. They went straight for their baskets and Paxton couldn't believe his eyes. He got his favorite thing...Church clothes! He couldn't wait to put them on for church!
It took him a minute but Gauge figured out how to find the eggs and that's when things got fun

It became a race and Ryan and I tried to hint as to where the eggs were without pointing them out. They did a pretty good job!

Gauge's new duds

Double O Paxton

After the Easter egg hunt Ryan got the pups fed and we started on breakfast. Dan and Sarah were on their way over to spend the morning with us.

When they got there they hid candy and eggs all over the front lawn for the boys to find. Then they invited our little neighbors over to share in another Easter egg hunt.

This time (third times a charm) the boys knew what to do and they got to it.

They couldn't believe that the Easter bunny had left things in the front yard too. I couldn't believe how spoiled my boys were, there was candy EVERYWHERE!

After the Easter egg hunt we had breakfast, Sarah brought monkey bread (my favorite food now) and we ate waffles and hung out in the back yard.

Dan and the boys standing on the trampoline...

We hung out for hours outside enjoying the perfect weather and getting burned. When Dan and Sarah left we continued to hang out in the backyard for the rest of the night. The boys played with the pups, jumped on the trampoline and played like crazy. It was great!

Its going to be hard to beat this Easter next year!We hope you all had a wonderful holiday!

Happy Easter

Almost Easter

Friday we had Dan and Sarah over to hang out and to color eggs with us. It was such a blast. I cannot tell you how much we love these guys!

Paxton and Gauge could not wait for them to get here either!

Sarah brought a kit for dying eggs that the boys used and I put a kit out as well. Ryan had boiled some eggs earlier for us and we got to work
The boys had a blast! This is Gauge saying his best phrase "I did it!"
Notice the art work! I have two little artists on my hands I think! My favorite egg, the one that I created...is sadly not pictured. It may have been the best. The boys eggs were great too though!
Sarah made an egg with a P for Pax and one with a G for Gauge. It was such a good time. Ryan and Dan hung out with us while we painted too. After we finished the boys went to bed and we all hung out for a couple of hours. Its been a long while since we have just hung out with friends and talked until late. We had a really great time!
The next morning we were off to an Easter egg hung at a park in downtown Nampa. We got up early and headed out!
This is the park where we did the hunt. A local church (the Rock church) put on the Easter egg hunt for the community. The church talked to the community and told them that they know everyone is hurting now with the economy the way it is and wanted to make a way for everyone to enjoy Easter even if they were down. It was a really big deal and really cool too. They had about 15,000 eggs all throughout the park.
When we got to the park we were a little early so we took this time to explain to the boys exactly what they needed to do.
Ryan and I took Paxton and Gauge aside and pointed to the eggs directly in front of us and made sure that they knew they had to pick up as many eggs as they could, as fast as they could. Paxton nodded and told us not to worry, that he was going to win the race... again, only a few minutes later, we explained to the boys that they were not running in a race, but that they would be picking up as many eggs as they could, as fast as they could and they were to put them in their baskets. Again, Paxton assured us that he would win the race!
Ryan and I gave each other a nod of approval. We knew we were going to score big and the boys couldn't wait!

On your marks, get set... GO!

As soon as the guy yelled go, our boys took off and took off fast!

They completely ran past all of the fifty eggs in front of us and straight for a tree. When they hit the tree, Paxton picked up an egg and put it in his basket...then he took off again, we have no idea where or why. Gauge followed right behind him and got lost at the first tree. He stood there completely lost as to what to do while kids ran up to his feet and picked up eggs.

We laughed so hard! I wish that I had gotten the beginning of the race but here is what we do have. Gauge is standing at the the tree in front of us in a brown jacket. Paxton can be seen in a tan jacket with a blue stripe running around all over and every once in awhile he can be seen picking up eggs...

Out of 15,000 eggs I think we ended up with at least ten.It was good practice for Easter! Good job boys!

Hanging out

Things have been pretty great this last week. Ryan and I have stayed busy feeding and entertaining the chitlins.

This puppy is Porterhouse. We are keeping him. We had all of the pups hanging out in the back yard and Porter found Ryan and laid between his feet. I think he knows who feeds him.
Sky

The boys love these puppies. Its going to be hard to give some of them away!

This is what our kitchen looks like first thing in the morning

The rest of us are just enjoying our time together. Ryan and I are pounding the pavement and going on drives in between time. Shelby is staying up longer and smiles almost constantly when she is awake. She wants to be around us all of the time. She sleeps through the night randomly now...hopefully we're close! Paxton has the biggest imagination ever. EVER! In these shots he is bucket head man. Look mom!

More ice cream

We've been playing games.

and we have been taking walks. We went to Ryan's old house and the boys ran along the ditch banks where he grew up.

The water wasn't running yet so we threw dirt into the dirt bank,

we fished with weeds

and we ran

that's about it with us. We hope you all have a wonderful Easter weekend!